French Senate votes to ban young beauty pageants
French lawmakers fear 'destructive' contests could grow to extremes of US and other countries and vote to curb youngsters being sexualised
Facing growing concern over the "hypersexualisation" of young girls, the French upper house of parliament has voted to end beauty pageants for those younger than 16.
The proposed ban now goes to the lower house, the National Assembly, for debate and a vote.
Pageants are popular in towns across France, though far less frequent and intense than in other parts of the world.
Still, the focus on beauty here, combined with a surge of images of sexualised, prepubescent girls, has raised fears that the pageants could take on the over-the-top quality of contests in the US and elsewhere.
"It is extremely destructive for a girl between the age of 6 and 12, to hear her mother say that what's important for her is to be beautiful," said Chantal Jouanno, a senator and champion of the ban.
"We are fighting to say: What counts is what they have in their brains."
Jouanno wrote a report on the "hypersexualisation" of children in 2011.